ANOTHER WAY SAVE OUR MONEY

There was an interesting article in The Telegraph; to which Tameside council bosses and some of their ‘hard working career councillors’ might like to make note when they’re next scratching their heads, looking for sensible ways to save money.

Instead of ‘going through the motions’ and prancing around Dukinfield brandishing a ‘Nifty Nabber Grabber’ and placcy bag, councillors may be better employed pondering the words of  Eric Pickles MP, the Minister for Local Government.

In the article, the Communities and Local Government secretary said translating documents was a “very expensive and poor use of taxpayers’ money”.

Mr Pickles told MPs in the House of Commons he was concerned that the costs were being driven by human rights and equality laws and actually served to divide communities rather than unite them.

Independent figures show that local authorities spend nearly £20million a year translating documents into a variety of different languages.

Mr Pickles said: “Some local authorities translate a range of documents and other materials into languages spoken by their residents, and provide interpretation services.

“Whilst there may be rare occasions in which this is entirely necessary – for instance in emergency situations, I am concerned that such services are in many cases being provided unnecessarily because of a misinterpretation of equality or human rights legislation.”

He added: “Stopping the automatic use of translation and interpretation services into foreign languages will provide further incentive for all migrant communities to learn English, which is the basis for an individual’s ability to progress in British society.

“It will promote cohesion and better community relations. And it will help councils make sensible savings, at a time when every bit of the public sector needs to do its bit to pay off the deficit left by the last administration.”

Now I don’t know if readers are aware, but according to the council’s web-site, Tameside Council has access to a bank of Interpreters covering over 140 different languages. Anyone with a query can ring the council with their needs and an interpreter will be arranged, well versed in their required language; all within 90 seconds of their call!

The council also boast that they also have officers with Gujarati, Bengali and Urdu language skills based at Ashton Town Hall and officers with Bengali skills at Hyde Customer Service Centre.

Now that’s all very well, but translation services don't come at the expense of those who need them, they come from the pockets of the taxpayer. And seeing as this Labour council now seem intent on screwing even more money out of us by upping the council tax by 3.5%, they’d better start showing us that our council officers and our councillors can develop and provide really creative, effective business solutions, and start implementing those efficiently for all of Tamesides' citizens, before the next round of local elections.